Nationalist residents of Belfast's lower Ormeau Road will know today the outcome of their legal battle to stop Orangemen walking through the area next Monday.
Judgment was reserved in the High Court in Belfast yesterday in an application for judicial review brought by a resident of the area.
Mr Justice Campbell said he would deliver judgment at 9.30 a.m. today. He told lawyers for the applicant, Mrs Patricia Pelan and the Parades Commission that if they intended to appeal, arrangements had been made for the Appeal Court to hear the case today. Mrs Pelan said in an affidavit that the Commission changed its decision in reaction to the Drumcree crisis. It was a political decision in the nature of a tradeoff, she said.
Mr Barry Macdonald, for Mrs Pelan, submitted the Commission had done a balancing act by rerouting Drumcree and allowing Orangemen to go through the lower Ormeau area. He said it was wrong in principle and in law for the Commission to be effectively dictated to by law and order conditions arising out of unlawful activities at Drumcree and other areas.
Mr Ronald Weatherup, QC, for the Commission, said the crux of the matter was whether the Commission was entitled to look beyond the locality of the Ormeau Road to what was happening in the broader community. He submitted that it was. Earlier the Commission's chairman, Mr Alistair Graham, denied in an affidavit that the Commission had changed its mind about re-routing the Ormeau parade.
Mr Graham said the decision to allow the parade to pass through the lower Ormeau area was not made until Monday, July 6th.